Two Years Is the Rule. It Isn't Always Your Deadline.

After a serious injury, the calendar is the last thing on anyone’s mind. There are surgeries to get through, bills arriving, and work missed. Most people have heard they have “two years,” and that sounds like plenty of time.

For many Arizona injury claims, two years is the right number. For a large share of the most serious ones, it isn’t.

A crash with a city vehicle, a fall on public property, a bite from a neighbor’s dog, or a drunk driver who was served at a bar can each put the case on a much shorter clock.

This guide explains the two-year rule and when it starts, the discovery rule, and how the clock pauses for children and people who are incapacitated. It then covers government deadlines, wrongful death, one-year claims, and uninsured motorist claims.

It closes with a quick-reference table and why waiting hurts a case even when the deadline is still far off.

The Two-Year Rule Under ARS 12-542

Arizona’s general personal injury deadline is ARS 12-542. It says an action for injury to a person must be “commenced and prosecuted within two years after the cause of action accrues.”

In plain terms, the lawsuit has to be on file with a court within two years. Reporting the claim to an insurer doesn’t satisfy it. Sending a demand letter doesn’t satisfy it. Only filing suit, or settling before the deadline, protects the claim.

The two-year rule covers the claims most injured people bring against a private defendant:

• Car, truck, motorcycle, and rideshare crashes caused by another driver
• Pedestrian and bicycle crashes
• Slip-and-fall and other premises injuries on private property
• Medical malpractice, which ARS 12-542 names expressly
• Negligence claims for assaults, unsafe products, and similar harms

A statute of limitations isn’t a technicality that courts overlook for a sympathetic case. Once the period runs, the defendant can ask the court to dismiss the claim, and a strong case can end without anyone reaching the merits.

When the Clock Starts

The statute runs from when the cause of action “accrues.” For most injuries, that’s the day it happened. A rear-end collision on March 3 starts a two-year clock on March 3. A fall in a grocery store aisle starts the clock the day of the fall.

The clock doesn’t wait for treatment to finish or for a doctor to give a final prognosis. Someone who spends a year in physical therapy before thinking about a claim has already used half the time.

The Discovery Rule

Arizona applies a discovery rule for the cases where an injury isn’t obvious right away. Under it, the claim generally accrues when the injured person knows, or reasonably should know, both that they were hurt and that someone’s conduct caused it.

For claims against a public entity, the legislature wrote that rule into the statute. ARS 12-821.01(B) says a claim accrues when the damaged party realizes they have been damaged and knows, or reasonably should know, the cause, source, act, event, or condition that caused it.

The discovery rule is real, but it’s narrow. It helps in cases like a surgical error that isn’t found until a later procedure, or a hidden defect whose role comes out only after an investigation.

It doesn’t help the person who felt neck pain the day of the crash and hoped it would pass. When the injury and its cause are obvious, the clock starts that day, even if the full extent of the harm shows up months later.

Children and People Who Are Incapacitated

Arizona pauses the clock for people who can’t protect their own claims. Under ARS 12-502, if the person entitled to sue is under 18 or of unsound mind when the claim accrues, the time under that disability doesn’t count against the limitations period.

For a child, that means the two-year clock generally doesn’t start until the eighteenth birthday. A child hurt at age eight generally has until age 20 to file an ordinary personal injury suit.

The same pause applies to an adult who is of unsound mind at the time the claim accrues, such as a person left unable to manage their own affairs. Once the disability ends, the ordinary period starts running.

Two limits matter here. The disability has to exist when the claim accrues, so an injury that happens to a competent adult doesn’t later gain a pause. And the tolling belongs to the injured person.

A parent’s own claim, such as for the medical bills the parent paid, is a separate claim. Families should not assume the parent’s claim shares the child’s extension. Treat the parent’s claim as due within two years of the injury.

When the Defendant Is the Government

This is the exception that costs the most Arizona families their claims. When the party at fault is a city, town, county, the State of Arizona, a public school district, or a public employee acting on the job, two shorter deadlines replace the two-year rule.

The 180-Day Notice of Claim

ARS 12-821.01 requires a written notice of claim before anyone can sue a public entity, public school, or public employee. It must be filed within 180 days after the cause of action accrues.

The notice has to be filed with the person authorized to accept service for that entity under the Arizona rules of civil procedure. It isn’t a phone call or an online complaint form. Under the statute, it must contain:

• Facts sufficient to let the entity understand the basis of the claim
• A specific dollar amount for which the claim can be settled
• The facts supporting that amount

A claim that isn’t filed within 180 days “is barred and no action may be maintained thereon.” That’s roughly six months from the injury, which often arrives before the injured person has finished treatment.

The public entity has 60 days to respond. Under ARS 12-821.01(E), the claim is deemed denied if no written denial arrives before then, and the claimant can move toward a lawsuit.

The One-Year Lawsuit Deadline

ARS 12-821 sets the deadline for the lawsuit itself. Every action against a public entity or public employee must be brought “within one year after the cause of action accrues and not afterward.”

So a government case carries two clocks running from the same day: 180 days to serve the notice, and one year to file the suit. The two-year rule under ARS 12-542 doesn’t apply.

Government defendants show up in more cases than people expect:

• A crash with a city bus, a police car, or a public works truck
• A school bus crash or an injury at a public school
• A fall caused by a broken city sidewalk or a hazard in a public building
• A crash caused by a dangerous road design or a malfunctioning traffic signal

The guide to Arizona bus crash law walks through how these deadlines apply when the vehicle was a public transit or school bus.

For a minor, ARS 12-821.01(D) allows the notice of claim to be filed within 180 days after the disability ends, which for a child means after turning 18. The parent’s own claim should still be treated as due within 180 days of the injury.

Wrongful Death: Two Years From the Date of Death

When an injury takes someone’s life, the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim. ARS 12-611 creates the claim, and ARS 12-542 sets the deadline: two years, with the claim treated as accruing at the death of the injured person.

That distinction matters when someone survives for a time after the injury. If a person hurt in a crash dies three months later, the wrongful death clock runs from the date of death, not the date of the crash.

The government rules still apply on top. If a public entity was involved, the 180-day notice and one-year lawsuit deadline control. A dram shop claim against a bar that served the at-fault driver should also be treated as a one-year claim, as the next section explains.

The Arizona wrongful death statute guide covers who can bring the claim and what a family can recover.

Claims With One-Year Clocks

Arizona has a separate one-year limitation for claims based on a “liability created by statute.” That rule is ARS 12-541(5), and it reaches two kinds of injury claims this site covers in detail.

Dog Bite Strict Liability

Arizona’s dog bite statute, ARS 11-1025, makes a dog’s owner liable when the dog bites someone in a public place or lawfully in a private place, regardless of whether the owner knew the dog was dangerous. That strict liability claim exists because of the statute, so it carries the one-year deadline under ARS 12-541.

A person bitten by a dog may also have a negligence claim, for example where an owner ignored a known history of aggression or broke a leash rule. That negligence claim generally runs on the two-year rule.

But filing within one year protects both theories, and the one-year date is the one to plan around. The dog bite lawyer page explains the strict liability claim in more depth.

Dram Shop Claims Against Bars and Restaurants

When a drunk driver was served at a bar or restaurant while obviously intoxicated, the establishment can be liable under ARS 4-311. Arizona’s filing period for that claim isn’t settled. The strongest argument is that the one-year rule under ARS 12-541(5) applies, because dram shop liability now exists only by statute.

The safe course is to treat a dram shop claim as due within one year of the crash. The claim against the driver keeps its own two-year deadline, but missing the dram shop date takes the bar and its insurance out of the case.

The Arizona dram shop liability guide explains why the deadline is unsettled and how these claims are proven.

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims

When the at-fault driver had no insurance, or too little for a serious injury, the claim often turns to the injured person’s own policy. Those claims run on a different statute, ARS 12-555, and it has several moving parts.

For an uninsured motorist claim, the insurer isn’t liable unless the injured person gives written notice of the claim within three years after the crash. The statute allows a later start in narrow situations, such as when the injured person didn’t know the other driver was uninsured.

For an underinsured motorist claim, the three-year written notice applies too, and so does a second requirement. The injured person must also have made a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurer, or sued that driver, within the two-year ARS 12-542 window.

Missing the two-year deadline against the driver can therefore end the underinsured claim as well. If the claim doesn’t settle after notice, ARS 12-555(C) requires arbitration to be demanded or suit to be filed within three years after the written notice.

These deadlines overlap in ways that are easy to misread. The Arizona uninsured motorist law guide covers how UM and UIM coverage works and how stacking disputes are handled.

Quick Reference: Arizona Injury Deadlines by Claim Type

The table below summarizes the deadlines covered in this guide. It’s a starting point, not a substitute for advice on a specific case, because accrual dates, tolling, and the identity of the defendant can each change the answer.

When more than one row applies to the same injury, the shortest deadline controls. A crash involving a drunk driver, a bar, and a city road can carry a 180-day, a one-year, and a two-year clock at the same time.

Why Waiting Hurts a Case Long Before the Deadline

A deadline that’s still months away can make it feel safe to wait. The legal clock is only one of the clocks running. The evidence starts disappearing right away, and much of that proof vanishes well before any statute of limitations expires.

Business and traffic camera footage is often recorded over on a short cycle. Once a store or a gas station overwrites the video of a crash or a fall, it can’t be recovered.

Vehicles get repaired, sold, or scrapped, taking their crash data and physical damage with them. A dangerous condition at a property gets fixed, and the proof of what it looked like goes with it.

Witnesses move, change phone numbers, and forget. A bystander who saw a light turn red can describe it clearly the next week. A year later, that same witness may remember almost nothing useful.

Medical records matter too. Gaps in treatment give an insurer room to argue the injury wasn’t serious, or that something else caused it. Consistent care from the start is better for health and for the claim.

When to Talk to a Lawyer

Some situations call for a call within days, not months. Any injury involving a government vehicle, employee, road, or building belongs at the top of that list, because the 180-day notice may already be running.

A dog bite, an injury caused by a driver who had been drinking at a bar, and a crash with an uninsured or underinsured driver all call for early attention too. So does any older injury to a child, where the tolling rules may keep a claim alive that the family assumed had expired.

AZ Law Now handles serious injury and wrongful death cases across Arizona on contingency, which means no fee unless the firm recovers money for you. A call to (602) 654-0202 is the place to sort out which deadline applies, so the claim isn’t lost to the calendar before anyone looks at what happened.